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New books in, old books out

Posted by on Friday 8 October 2010 in decluttering | 0 comments

I went on a bit of a book buying spree one evening last week – a combination of Amazon new & used, and Abebooks. Unusually for me, all of the books were fiction – I think I’m subconsciously preparing for a winter of reading in front of the stove.

Six packages arrived one morning – our poor postman – and to make the most of it, I stretched out opening them over the next few days. I love opening parcels containing brand new books – the flatness of the pages, that fab new book smell – and compared to that, opening new-to-me used books is a more varied, often disappointing experience if the books are in a poorer condition than expected — but that’s usually fleeting and I’d prefer to have cheaper, used books than that new-book experience any day.

When I was talking about the hidden costs of hoarding a few months ago, I decided that I’d have a new policy when it came to buying books to avoid our (extensive) book collection spinning out of control: for every two books I buy, I have to get rid of an existing one.

So I got nine books in and this is my five out:

A couple of old fiction books, a judgemental poor man’s Louis Theroux book about the US, a how-to book on soft furnishings which I bought at the wrong end of my interest in soft furnishings, and a coffee table book on Art Deco artefacts/ornaments.

With Dan’s great suggestion for using Library Thing as a way to remember books rather than keeping the physical copies, I don’t have to worry about forgetting the fiction ones, so all these will be heading off to a charity shop soon!

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